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Many years ago, I promised to write a second pre-made adventure for you the players to play that adhered fairly close to canon. Well- after two hard drive crashes, a Coke spill on my note book and an eight hour a day job, that's not going to happen.
Instead I'm going to talk about something other than game mechanics.
When it comes to character interaction and plot, I'm very much of the diving into a character. I have a limited scope as an actor, but I can sometimes get lost in a character. I guess it comes from the fact that when I was a kid my mom did a lot of community theater. While I did a few acting classes and a few really bad movies for my friends film classes because: "We need someone that can do that lovable every man character with gusto. We need someone with a background in martial arts who can take a fall, make it look real, not get hurt or at least roll with the pain and make it seem funny. Hey Jess, you doing anything Monday and Thursday afternoon?"
Anyway- most of the time when you're playing a licensed game, the GM will be playing all the canon characters. There are several helpful hints.
- Get to know your character. I'm currently running a Marvel Heroes game. This is easy if you're playing say Spider-Man. You have the Marvel handbook and back issues are readily available. What if you're playing someone a little more obscure? This can be tricky. I've found that there are fansites and wikipedia entries for almost anyone. I mean if Eye-Scream from "Obnoxio the Clown Vs. The X-Men" gets a nod anyone can. Don't make the characters act out of plot demands. Get a sense of what the character is like and put as much (if not more) reasoning into their actions as the players do with theirs.
- Inexperienced Gamemaster's should not attempt to play characters who are radically different from them. This is why so many of my early Marvel games ended up featuring Multiple Man, Spider-Man and The Thing as guest stars. My players suspect it is because they are my favorites. They are my favorites because I can relate to them. If I was just playing favorites, Kitty Pryde and Howard the Duck would be in every episode. (Actually I had friend who played Kitty a few times.) As I've aged, I've successfully added many other Marvel staples to my lineup including: Nightcrawler, Deadpool, J. Jonah Jameson and Guido Carosella.
- If you let a player use a canon character, make sure they've read any stories essential to your plot (or at least give them access to your copies) before play. Be stricter on your judgment calls as well. After all, they are supposed to be the experienced ones.
Now here is the interesting thing: I've been GMing for years so one of my players jokingly wondered when rule two wouldn't apply to me. So recently I've experimented with using canon characters that are nothing like me. Or at least ones I hope are nothing like me. Though maybe I am like that. There are three experiments so far.
- Frank Castle (AKA The Punisher): This character was actually quite refreshing to play. The thing is I sort of bent canon. Punisher is usually written as a cold, heartless killing machine with no greater purpose than death and destruction. There is something primal about him and I don't think any of us can possibly say there isn't some part of us that is like Frank. I ended up giving him a bit of a sense of humor. This isn't entirely out of character. He cracked a joke or two during his team ups with Power Pack and Archie. But the humor wasn't in that vein. This was closer to Marvel Max Punisher which is a separate universe. Luckily, Garth Ennis wrote a few issues of Marvel Knights Punisher as well, so I was in the clear on a technicality. Though I hadn't read those issues at that point. Though my players found it amusing, so it all worked out. One of the players commented in character: "This just proves the NRA is right.
Guns don't kill people. Frank Castle kills people." The other thing I learned from playing Castle is that maybe I have more anger issues than I thought. I mean the sick twisted stuff I came up with while thinking the way he does was just brutal.
- Victor Von Doom: This is another character that when done well is both charming, cunning and even comes off as a man of honor sometimes. On the surface, I'd like to think I had more in common with Doom than Punisher. Save for the fact that Castle has killed thousands and Doom millions. Doom is about being calm and controlled save for a few spurts of emotion. Though I think if he just took some lithium he'd be right as rain. He might put on a few pounds. I guess in that armor it would show. Doom was again, quite fun to play. The way this campaign is going hopefully I'll get to play him again. My acting professor was right. The villains are much more fun to play.
- Tony Stark: Anyone who knows me well knows four things about me: I don't date, I get nervous enough to crash into things when around women I'm attracted to, I make less than eight bucks an hour and I don't drink. Surprisingly, I did rather well as Stark. My trick? I used myself as a template. Then I thought of what I would do in that situation and then did something else. That's right, I'm Bizarro Stark. The character wasn't all that fun to play. He may show up again, but not for awhile.
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